The referenced prior application discloses a wheelchair anti-rollback mechanism involving a one-way engaging clutch and a chair wheel mounted manual mechanism to activate and de-activate the clutch in which the chair occupant need never remove his or her hands from the customary chair propulsion rings mounted near the outer sides of the chair main wheels. The arrangement eliminates the possibility of loss of control of the chair, which could occur if the chair occupant was required to release the wheel propulsion rings in order to operate another mechanism. The present invention is founded on the same principle of operation, namely, that a chair occupant need not remove his or her hands from the chair propulsion rings adjacent to the chair main wheels, when operating the brake mechanism forming the subject matter of this invention.
An object of the invention is to provide a manual wheelchair brake of highly simplified construction which is convenient to operate by a chair occupant having minimal arm and hand strength, and requiring significantly less effort to operate in comparison to slowing or stopping the chair solely by gripping and retarding the chair propulsion rings with the hands.
Another object of the invention is to provide a dynamic brake for a wheelchair which is direct-acting in response to lateral hand pressure against the outer sides of the chair propulsion rings.
Still another object is to provide a wheelchair brake of the above type which is resiliently biased toward a release or inactive position.
Another object is to provide a manual brake for wheelchairs which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and install on chairs, requiring only minimal structural modification of conventional manually propelled wheelchairs.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.